Major brand names have been instituting a long-term marketing plan to garner the confidence, loyalty and trust of millennials, a demographic that will soon become a major consumer base, one that is even greater than the Baby Boomers. One of these measures is incorporating mobile marketing into their business models.

It was reported this week that Marriott hotels have engaged in in-depth consumer research, especially with the 18 to 34 demographic. What the multi-national corporation discovered is that millennials are avid travelers, but they refrain from booking a room with luxurious hotels akin to Marriott. The company will circumvent this by app integration, wireless charging and an adjustment in their menus, a business maneuver in the world of mobile (except the snacks).

This type of mobile adoption is what advertisers and brands are beginning to partake in. Indeed, digital marketing is going mobile through the means of social media, email marketing, video consumption and personalized location content. Not to mention discounts and rewards through mobile applications.

Mobile marketing will be just as synonymous with millennials as is mobile commerce, or m-commerce. In fact, the newer generation browses the Internet more on their mobile devices than on their desktop computers - if they still even have them in their home. Millennials do everything on their smartphones and tablets: shop, consume videos, tweet, Like, share content, write reviews and so on.

“Texting, social media and other online communication have all given this talk-without-really-talking generation the ability to communicate on their own terms: at their convenience, without having to make eye contact, without judgment and with some degree of anonymity,” said Duke Chung, co-founder of Parature, Herndon, VA, in an interview with Mobile Marketer.“They are also able to control the conversation, determining the length, the direction and if and when they will respond - and via what channel. Brands must give teens and their always-connected nature their full attention, as they are tomorrow’s next generation of customers.”

Moving forward, marketers must embrace mobile marketing if they wish to capture the millennial market now and in the future. Unconvinced? As Erich Joamchimsthaler, who is CEO of Vivaldi Partners Group, said, “marketers who are not prepared to make the necessary adjustments to meet [the needs of the millennials] will suffer.”

In other words, maintain a focus on delayed gratification as the return on investment is down the line when they’re more of a consumer.

Here are four reasons why mobile marketing is imperative to capture millennial consumers:

#1 Mobile is Their Life

More than three-quarters of millennials own a smartphone, which makes them the most digitally connected generation in history. Furthermore, about half of smartphone owners report accessing the Internet more on their mobile device than on a conventional computer (desktop or laptop).

Here are some other statistics: more than 75 percent of millennials use their mobile devices while in a store and 73 percent are already performing transactions on their smartphones and tablets. This type of mobile usage is a pot of gold for marketers, particularly if millennials are using a smartphone in a store (personalized location content).

#2 (Slowly) Ignoring Traditional Media

This past summer, a study was released that captured the attention of marketers everywhere. The report showed that millennials have mixed feelings between traditional media (print and television) and digital ads (banners, social media and videos). With that being said, 70 percent of millennials said television ads were highly effective, but the results showed that there was 60 percent for social media ads, 42 percent for online display and 30 percent for online video in terms of effectiveness.

As time goes by and a greater number of millennials cut the cord and primarily consume digital content - don’t forget the generation that succeeds millennials - traditional media will be an antiquated medium that will truly enter the dustbins of history.

#3 Digital Deals

Gone are the days of family members and friends sitting around the kitchen table locating coupons and cutting them out of newspapers and magazines. Today, consumers rely on websites to give them deals, and many of them depend on Groupon and Living Social to receive the deals in their email inbox. Once they find the deals in their inbox, they will simply scan the coupon at a point-of-sale system or show the server at a restaurant.

Although this system is slowly fading away because of corporate apps, social media and mobile adoption by businesses and brands, email marketing is still an important element to the mobile marketing trend.

#4 In the Know

Polls have regularly shown that millennial consumers want to be ahead of the curve when it comes to brand new products and services. Heck, they even are willing to pay more for it. This is most especially true for social media users. The most popular way for brands to engage with their audience and provide corporate updates on the development of a product or a service is through social media, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Since much of the millennial market utilizes their smartphones for their social media needs, brands must capitalize on the m-commerce landscape to attain millennial customers.

Mobile marketing is becoming the next big thing in the world of advertising. No longer are brands allocating a bulk of their resources on print publications, but rather mobile SEO, mobile apps, mobile ads, mobile content and mobile videos. This is where the millennials are, and for them, this is just a natural order of things.